James H. W. Thompson son of Mary Thompson, Mosquito Lady

JAMES HARRISON WILSON THOMPSON

James Harrison Wilson Thompson was born in Greenville, New Castle County, Delaware, 21 March, 1906, to Henry Burlington Thompson and his wife Mary Wilson Thompson. Henry Thompson was born in Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 6 August 1857, to Lucius Peters and Caroline Jones Burlington Thompson , and became a wealthy manufacturer in the cotton industry. He had a sister born 1859, a brother born 1863 and another sister born 1870, all born in Pennsylvania.

On the 14^th of April, 1891, Henry Burlington Thompson married Mary Wilson. In addition to James Harrison Wilson Thompson, they had Elinor, born 1901; Henry, Jr., born 1897; Katherine, born 1893; and Mary born 1892. These siblings were all born in Wilmington, New Castle County. Henry and Mary both died at their Brookwood Farm

Mary Wilson was born 30 October 1866 in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, to General James Harrison Wilson, U. S. Army Retired who lived between 1837 and 1925. The generals wife was Ella Andrews, born 1846, married 1866. It appears that this family had only the one daughter.

General James Harrison Wilson was born on September 2, 1837, in Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois, to Harrison Wilson and Catherine Schneider. General Wilson died in Wilmington, Delaware, 23 February 1925 at age 87 and is buried in Olde Swedes Cemetery, Wilmington. Graduated at West Point in 1860, he was part of the Port Royal expedition and the capture of Fort Pulaski, made major 13 April 1852. He was on the staff of McClellen at South Mountain and Antietam. After Vicksburg and Chattanooga , 1863, made Lt.. Colonel. In 1864 he commanded the 3^rd Cavalry Division, Army of the Potomac, an became a full colonel while fighting in the wilderness.

He was commander of the cavalry in Mississippi, October 1864 to July 1865 , led cavalry expeditions in Georgia and Alabama as a brigadier general. He retired from the Army 31, December 1870 and was engaged in railroad management in the United States and China. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish American War he was commissioned a major general and served until 1901 when he again retired.

This was Mary Wilson Thompson's , “The Mosquito Woman” of Rehoborth, father, and the grandfather of James Harrison Wilson Thompson, an architecture graduate at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. During WWII Thompson enlisted as a private in the National Guard Coastal Artillery and after a year service became a member of the OSS, a intelligence agency. Trained in guerilla warfare, served in North Africa and Europe, then sent to the jungles of Thailand. The end of WWII canceled assignments and Thompson went back to Thailand to help resuscitate that country's ailing silk industry. He established a network of weaver in Bangkok to produce materials of colors that attracted American fashion. This silk empire erned him the title of “Silk King” and provided funds to pursue his love of art and architecture. In 1959 he designed and erected a Thai style teak house, assembled a collection of porcelains, carvings, paintings and works of art, opened a museum.

There is a record of a marriage in Virginia, Albemarle county , that J. H. W. Thompson married a daughter of Oscar Robert Thraves, but no other data was available.

During the Veitnam War in 1967, Thompson visited friends in Cameron, Pahang, Maylaysia, while there was 'lost' while taking a stoll and disappeared. His days with the OSS and or natural hazards of the tropical jungle gave no clue. He just disappeared, the son of the enigmatic “mosquito Lade” of Rehoboth was never seen again.